The Theory of Everything: Indian Railways

History of Indian Railway

1. The history of the Indian railway began in the mid 19^th In 1844, the Governor-General of India Lord Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system in India.

• Indian Railways is divided into 17 zones, which are further sub-divided into divisions.

2. The number of zones in Indian Railways increased from six to eight in 1951, nine in 1966, and sixteen in 2003. Each zonal railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each having a divisional headquarters. The total number of railway stations in India is estimated to be between 8,000.

3. Indian Railways is the fourth-largest employer in the world, employing over a million people. The trains have a 5 digit numbering system and run 12,617 passenger trains and 7,421 freight trains daily. As of 31 March 2016, 27,999 km (41.59%) of the total 67,312 km route length was electrified.

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Economy

• Railways are the principal mode of transportation for freight and passengers in India. Railways also make it possible to conduct multifarious activities like business, sightseeing, and pilgrimage along with transportation of goods over longer distances.
• Railways in India bind the economic life of the country as well as accelerate the development of industry and agriculture.
• The Indian Railway has a network of 7,133 stations spread over a route length of 64,460 km with a fleet of 9,213 locomotives, 53,220 passenger service vehicles, 6,493 other coach vehicles, and 2,29,381 wagons as of March 2011.
• The Government of India earns revenue of approx. ₹1.6345 trillion annually.

Financial Performance

• 2015-16- Savings of Rs. 8,720 crore neutralizing most of the revenue shortfall.
• 2016-17- Target to restrict the growth of Ordinary Working Expenses by 11.6% after building in immediate impact of 7th Pay Commission, reductions planned in diesel and electricity consumption, Revenue generation targeted at Rs. 1,84,820 crore.

Investments and Resources

• 2016-17 CAPEX pegged at Rs. 1.21 lakh crore, implementation through joint ventures with states, developing new frameworks for PPP, etc.

Vision

• By 2020, the long-felt desires of the common man to be fulfilled.

Port connectivity

Tuna Port commissioned and rail connectivity projects to ports of Jaigarh, Dighi, Rewas, and Paradip under the implementation of rail connectivity for the ports of Nargol and Hazira under PPP in 2016-17.

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Jammu and Kashmir

Work on Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project progressing satisfactorily- 35 km of tunneling out of a total of 95 km completed. Decongestion work on Jalandhar - Jammu line in full swing and doubling of two bridges to be commissioned by March 2016, while the other two bridges will be completed by 2016-17.

Make in India -

Finalized bids for two loco factories, proposed to increase the current procurement of train sets by 30%.

Partnerships –

• Cabinet approval for JVs with State Governments, 17 consented and 6 MOUs signed with State Governments.
• 44 new partnership works covering about 5,300 km and valuing about Rs. 92,714 crore have been indicated in the Budget documents.
• Railways are preparing a Plan size of Rs. 1,21,000 crore in 2016-17.

Factories Allocated

• Madhepura(Bihar) : Diesel factory will cost Rs 2,052 crore
• Marhowra(Bihar) : Electric factory will cost Rs 1,293.57 crore
• Madhya Pradesh: Diesel Factory will cost Rs 200 crore

Impact of Indian Railways on Economy

1. The Indian Railways contribute to India's economic development, accounting for about one percent of the GNP and the backbone of freight needs of the core sector.

2. It accounts for six percent of the total employment in the organized sector directly and an additional 2.5 percent indirectly through its dependent organizations.

3. It has invested significantly in health, education, housing, and sanitation. With its vast network of schools and investment in training, the Indian Railways plays an important role in human resource development.

Note: 

• The Indian Railways, with nearly 63,000 route kilometers fulfill the country's transport needs, particularly, in respect of long-distance passenger and goods traffic.
• Freight trains carry nearly 1.2 million tonnes of originating goods and 7,500 passenger trains carry nearly 12 million passengers every day.

Ranking

The Indian Railways is the largest public sector undertaking in the country. It is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 67,312 km (41,826 mi) and 7,112 stations.

India’s Biggest Platform - Gorakpur railway station is the important junction of the Northern Indian railway & became the world's largest platform with a length of 1,366m.

Ministry of Railways

• Cabinet minister: Suresh Prabhu

New Schemes

1. 100 rail stations to get Wi-Fi this year.
2. Indian Railways will provide 17,000 bio-toilets on trains.
3. Additional toilets at 475 stations before 2016-17 ends.
4. E-catering services to be extended to 408 stations.
5. Developing Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Mumbai, and Kharagpur-Vijayawada freight corridors on a priority basis.
6. To create a rail auto hub in Chennai.
7. Watchdog proposed for railways.
8. FM radio entertainment on trains.
9. With new uniforms, railway porter will be called Sahayaks.
10. Half of the lower berths are reserved for senior citizens.
11. Baby food at stations, child menu on all trains.
12. Local cuisine to be available on trains.
13. Ticket cancellation through phone calls.
14. To install 1,780 automatic ticketing machines.
15. CCTV surveillance in all stations in a phased manner.
16. Local art to be highlighted at railway stations.
17. Dedicated freight corridors envisaged for North-South, East-West, and East Coast alignments.

New Trains

There are 4 new trains announced by the Rail minister Suresh Prabhu in his second Railway Budget 2016-17.

• Humsafar: For the middle class
• Tejas: For those in a hurry
• Uday (Double-deckers): For those traveling on busy routes
• Antyodaya: For the economically backward
• No of Rajdhani in India: There are currently 22 sets of Rajdhani Express operational
• No of Shatabdi in India: There are currently 60 sets of Shatabdi Express operational

Railway across Border

1. Jogbani-Biratnagar Link -Nepal
2. Samjhauta Express -Pakistan
3. Maitri Express -Bangladesh
4. Bhutan Railway -Bhutan
5. Myanmar Rail -Myanmar
6. Vietnam Link -Vietnam
7. Railway Link - China
8. Thailand Line -Thailand
9. Malaysia Railway Link
10. Singapore Train Link
11. Mannar Line- Sri Lanka

Japan-India Contract

The MOU for co-operation on the proposed 508 km Mumbai – Ahmedabad high-speed line was signed on December 12 Japan would provide a 50-year loan worth more than Rs 790 bn, with a 15-year grace period and an interest rate of 0·1%. India’s Ministry of Railways said it had been agreed that Shinkansen technology would be adopted, with technology transfer to support the government’s Make in India policy. Japan would also provide staff training.

Most beautiful railway stations in India

1. Lucknow Charbagh Railway Station (Lucknow)
2. Barog (Shimla)
3. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Mumbai)
4. Ghum (Darjeeling)
5. Howrah (Kolkata)
6. Cuttack (Odisha)

LIC Contract

Indian Railways signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to raise Rs 1.5 lakh crore over the next five years beginning of April 2016.

The investment by LIC, to be made through Rs 30,000 crore of bonds issued annually by rail entities such as the Indian Railway Finance Corporation would be channelized by the railways in capacity augmentation projects. The bonds will come with a five-year moratorium on interest and loan repayment.

PPP Model

A public-private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a government service or private business venture that is funded and operated through a partnership of the government and one or more private sector companies. PPP involves a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes the substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project.

 The Government-constituted expert committee named Ajay Shankar Committee to examine the Possibility of Replacing Multiple Prior Permissions with Pre-Existing Regulatory Mechanism submitted.

Committees on Railway

Production Unit of Indian Railways

Other Interesting Facts

1. Nationalised in 1951, Indian Railways is today the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second-largest network operated under single management. It has 115,000 km of track length. It runs 12,617 trains to carry over 23 million passengers daily – equivalent to moving the entire population of Australia – connecting more than 7,172 stations.

2. Railways runs more than 7,421 freight trains carrying 3 million tonnes (MT) of freight every day.

3. Indian Railways is in constant touch with Railways across the world to bring in state-of-art facilities in its system. Towards this, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the Eighth Session of the Indo-Austria Joint Economic Commission held in Vienna.

4. Darjeeling Himalayan Railways attained the World Heritage Status from UNESCO.

5. Fairy Queen, the oldest functioning steam engine in the world, which finds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, got Heritage Award at the International Tourist Bureau, Berlin in March 2000.

6. Indian Railways achieved a number of recognitions and awards in the sports, tourism sector and for excellence in operational matters. In the Common Wealth Games in Manchester, the Indian teams' record performance has been mainly due to the Railway team’s excellence in sports.

7. India became the first developing country and the 5th country in the world to roll out the first indigenously built "state-of-the-art" high horsepower three phases electric locomotive when the first such loco was flagged off from Chittranjan Locomotive Works (CLW).

IRCTC

IRCTC stands for Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation, it is a subsidiary of the Indian Railway that handles the catering, tourism & online ticketing operations of the Indian railway.

Headquarters: New Delhi, NCT

Heritage Trains of India

Konkan Railway

One of the important achievements of Indian Railways has been the construction of the Konkan Railway in 1998. It is a 760 km long rail route connecting Roha in Maharashtra to Mangalore in Karnataka. It is considered an engineering marvel. It crosses 146 rivers, streams, nearly 2000 bridges and91 tunnels. Asia’s largest tunnel which is nearly 6.5 km long also lies on this route. The states of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka are partners in this undertaking.  It has constructed bridges - engineering marvels across major rivers like the Ganga, Godavari, and Brahmputra.

Medical Railway

The Lifeline Express or the Jeevan Rekha Express is the world's first medical train run by the Impact India Foundation. This train was started on 16^th July 1991 & had completed its 120 projects with the benefits to 6,00,000 rural Indians. Some of the services provided by this train are Orthopaedic surgical intervention, Surgical interventions, Plastic Surgical correction, Epilepsy, Immunisations, Nutritional assessment.

Science Train

Three Ministries, led by their Union Ministers came together to flag off the Science Express Climate Action Special (SECAS).  Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Railway, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, and Union Minister of Department of Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan flagged off the train from Safdarjung Railway Station. The Science Express Climate Action Special will travel across the country, covering about 19, 500 km, initially for about eight months, halting at 64 locations in about 20 states. 

Palace on Wheels

The Palace on wheels is the luxury train of India which was launched in August 2009, in association with Rajasthan Tourism & voted as the 4^th Luxurious train in the world. The idea of this train is taken from the past rulers of Gujarat, Rajasthan & Hyderabad & was originally meant to be personal railway coaches.

• There are 23 coaches on the train.
• 104 tourists can travel by train.
• Each coach is named after former Rajput states and matches the aesthetics and interiors of the royal past: Alwar, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Bundi, Dholpur, Dungargarh, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Jhalawar, Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Kota, Sirohi, and Udaipur.
• Each coach has four cabins (named chambers or saloons by the company) with luxury amenities and Wi-Fi internet.
• The train has two restaurants, The Maharaja and The Maharani, with a Rajasthani ambiance serving continental, Chinese cuisine, one bar cum lounge, 14 saloons, and a spa.

Note:-

World’s fastest Train:  Shanghai Maglev, also known as Shanghai Transrapid, is currently the fastest train in the world. CRH 380A running between Beijing and Shanghai. AGV Italo, touted to be the most modern train in Europe, has a maximum operational speed of 360kmph.

World’s Latest Technology: The City LYNX Gold Line, formerly known as Center City Corridor, is a 16km streetcar project in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, US. The project, which is a key part of Charlotte's 2030 Transit Plan, is being developed in phases.

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